ROW: Consequences of Larval Ecology in Neotropical Insects

这一建议解决了后代生存和竞争能力如何影响某些新热带昆虫的成虫繁殖行为的主要问题，这些昆虫的幼虫在充满水的树洞中发育。由于这些物种使用相同的限制性资源（即树洞），并且雌性可以预见地在光隙中被发现，因此交配系统的差异无法用生殖资源分布（传统范式）来完全解释。幼虫栖息地的离散性可以根据存活到出现的后代的相对数量来评估成功。虽然先前在巴拿马的研究表明，幼虫之间的捕食使某些物种的领土防御无效，但需要实验证实这一结果。如果工作假设得到支持，这项研究将是第一个证明种间竞争在交配系统进化中的作用的研究。

This proposal addresses the major questions of how offspring survivorship and competitive ability influence adult reproductive behavior in certain species of neotropical insects whose larvae develop in water-filled treeholes. Because these species use the same limiting resource (i.e. treeholes), and females are predictably found in light gaps, differences in mating systems cannot be fully explained in terms of the distribution of reproductive resources (the traditional paradigm). The discrete nature of the larval habitat allows assessment of success in terms of the relative number of offspring surviving to emergence. Although previous research in Panama suggests that predation among larvae render territorial defense ineffective for some species, experimental confirmation of this result is needed. If the working hypotheses are supported, this study will be one of the first to demonstrate a role of interspecific competition in the evolution of mating systems.